To confirm that syndecan-1 induced downregulation of Ets-1 is in a causal relationship with hepatocyte-like differentiation of the transfected hepatoma cells, wild-type HepG2 and Hep3B cell lines were stably transfected with miRNA expressing plasmids, i.e., designated miR-362, miR-641 and miR-362+641, targeting ETS1 transcripts. The gene discussed is ETS1; the disease is hepatocellular carcinoma.